This is back in the 1960s. A Texas bank is putting up a new building and sets up a temporary office in a trailer. There’s a one ton safe in the trailer. A crook figures that a dozen strong guys would have no problem lifting the safe by hand and carrying it out. He puts together a team and they do the job. Something goes wrong and they end up dropping the safe. One crook’s finger is caught under the safe. He manages to get away, but when the police lift the safe they find his finger tip. And yes, they had his fingerprints on file.
True story.
This is back in the 1960s. A Texas bank is putting up a new building and sets up a temporary office in a trailer. There’s a one ton safe in the trailer. A crook figures that a dozen strong guys would have no problem lifting the safe by hand and carrying it out. He puts together a team and they do the job. Something goes wrong and they end up dropping the safe. One crook’s finger is caught under the safe. He manages to get away, but when the police lift the safe they find his finger tip. And yes, they had his fingerprints on file.
Fingerprint matching in the 60s sounds, uh, time intensive.
If you want to go down a rabbithole, look up the early days of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI.
Hoover got the job because he was a bureaucrat, not a lawman. He would have his people build giant files by hand on anyone of interest.
Fingered by the law
Doesn’t matter, got fingered